Sustainability? Wrong! No Major G7 Stock Index on Climate Course, Even German DAX is Missing Paris Target

No major stock index among the G7 countries is on course to meet the Paris climate targets. While the DAX is performing the best, it is still well shy of the goal with a temperature trajectory of 2.2 degrees.  As a new infographic from Handelskontor shows, while investor interest in sustainable investments is growing, idealists still seem to be steering clear of the major indices.

Just 19% of the firms represented in the indices have set climate goals that meet the Paris Climate Accords. There are just three companies in the DAX that are officially committed to achieving the goal of 2 degrees of warming, as defined by Science Based Targets (SBTi): these are Deutsche Telekom, HeidelbergCement and SAP.

The infographic illustrates a significant increase in consumers‘ and investors‘ interest in environmental protection. 42% of German citizens describe themselves as actively behaving sustainably, with a further 47% considered passively sustainable – meaning that they at least expect companies to act ecologically.

Sustainable Stocks

The topic of investment has been increasingly on people’s agendas throughout the pandemic, in part due to the fact that they’ve had less to spend their money on. Stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies are experiencing a boom. But there’s something else new: sustainable investment. 61% of female investors state that sustainability has become more important since the Corona crisis, compared to 45% of men.

While the DAX is still far from being a sustainable index, it does perform significantly better than the indices of other G7 countries. In a ranking of the “most green” countries in the world Germany comes in tenth place, with Denmark taking the top position.

Bild von dexmac auf Pixabay